Category Archives: Google

Search Engines

As writers, we spend a lot of time looking for information, so a responsive and accurate search engine is essential.

So far, only one search engine has entered the language as a transitive verb….Google. It proves its dominance, in the same way as hoover is the common term for using a vacuum cleaner.

I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with Google, mainly for its inaccuracy. Asking a question of Google reminds me of the way that politicians never answer the question posed by the interviewer—they always answer a different question. Google is annoying too, for the way it prioritises stuff for sale. Its personalised search function is more of a hindrance than a help.

As this Wikipedia article notes:

Several concerns have been brought up regarding the feature. It decreases the likelihood of finding new information, since it biases search results towards what the user has already found. It also introduces some privacy problems, since a user may not be aware that their search results are personalized for them, and it affects the search results of other people who use the same computer (unless they are logged in as a different user)

I don’t want to see the same results regurgitated from a month ago.

I usually forget to use Bing, but sometimes turn to DuckDuckGo:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/duckduckgo-vs-google-search-engine/

An article in Fast Company mentions DuckDuckGo and four other search engines:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90388493/these-5-great-alternative-search-engines-do-what-google-cant?

Which search engine do you rely on?